What I've Learnt About How to Sleep
Published on 2025-10-04
- Sleeping too much can tire me out as much as sleeping too little.
- Waking up in a sleep cycle, about 1 and a 1/2 hours, is tiring.
- Switching off digital devices an hour before bed helps me sleep.
- My body has an internal clock and I can just decide when to wake up by setting an intention to do so before you go to bed.
- The costs of missed sleep often show up not the next day, but the day after that.
- Earplugs work, but I have to roll them thin before inserting them, otherwise they won't seal themselves in your ear.
- Blocking out light works. Pro-tip: use tin-foil. It's good for more than just blocking out telepaths.
- Melatonin isn't meant for putting you to sleep immediately. You take it several hours before your intended bed time, to shift your sleep schedule.
- I regularly get migraines if I stay awake >2-3 hours past my normal bed time.
- I can quickly fix my sleeping schedule if I want to.
- Shifting your sleep schedule too quickly can lead to poor sleep.
- Consistency matters a lot for good sleep.
- After I fix my sleep schedule, it's glaringly obvious when I feel tired. You want to go to sleep on time.
- I can just decide to go to sleep. Yes, even if I'm doom scrolling on twitter late at night.
- Consciously weighing the value of going to sleep vs. continuing what I'm doing right now helps me realize I want to go to sleep. Is sacrificing tomorrow worth what you're doing today?
- I start reading OOD things when I'm awake too late: this includes things I've always wanted to read, but never got around to. Like textbooks, blog posts, papers etc.
- I can cough so much that I can't fall asleep for more than an hour for weeks.
- I become funnier when I'm severely sleep-deprived.
- Absent corrective efforts, my sleep schedule drifts forwards each night.
- When I sleep late, the next day I feel constrained by my sleep schedule, as I have fewer hours to stay awake. So I decide to sleep later to "have more time".
- Magnesium gives me crazy dreams. Like, spelunking caverns whilst hiding from the dragon god in Demon Souls, fighting zombies for chocolate in supermarkets, and finding a space-warping trash stream that accelerates till its velocity hits a singularity. Yes, that was a single dream.
- I can just change clothes at night if I'm too hot/cold in bed.
- Caffeine doesn't make me more awake, but does stave off tiredness for several hours.
- When I get mentally exhausted, I can take a 10-minute nap to get a second wind.
- Going to the gym at night doesn't make me that tired.
- Eating before bed makes it harder to sleep.
There are probably other things I'm missing, but I can't really think of what at the moment. So ends my attempt at a listicle. Man, this 500 word requirement is a bit tedious. Ah well, such requirements are useful and we had to set the limit somewhere.